bike train

Hello fellow Bike Commuters, roadies and mountain bikers! It has been a while since I’ve posted but to be truthful I have not been commuting on my bike lately and I don’t really want to be one of those bloggers that pretend to ride to work and write stuff about how fantastic their commute is.

However, I have been riding my mountain bike and my tandem bike every weekend. Ironically, I think that there are times that mountain biking is safer than riding to work since I don’t have to deal with dickhead drivers.

Why have I stopped riding to work? Well, I can’t control the train schedules and unfortunately my kids still have Summer water polo and drumline practices which conflict with the lack of frequent trains to LA.

Anyhow, things will change soon so I can start riding to work again and I am already looking into getting a new-to-me commuter bicycle. Meanwhile, enjoy the Tour de France!

Hello Bike Commuters! I am back after a couple of weeks of water polo, swimming, doctor’s appointments and drumline performances. No, I didn’t do all of that stuff, I have two teenage daughters that keep me quite busy.

It is because of my daughters that I started to think about not bike commuting anymore, if you follow us on Facebook, we posted about Alan Snel being rear ended by a fucktard that was “driving” while being distracted. What is so fucked up is that the driver wasn’t even cited for hitting Alan because Vero Beach’s law does not favor cyclists at all. California is a little different, we do have laws against distracted drivers but most don’t give a shit and still use their phone for calling, texting, facetiming and Netflix binge watching. I am not kidding you, I’ve seen shithead drivers with their phones on their windshields watching Netflix. What.The.Fuck.

We have also seen a rash of hit and run “accidents” in Southern California, although most victims are pedestrians, a good number of them are also cyclists. So that had me thinking if riding my bike to work was really worth it. I am not really saving money in gas because of the cheap gas prices, I am not saving any time but I do it because I love riding and I’m not stuck in shitty traffic. I know that when it is time for us to go, it is time to go, I just don’t want to go at the hands of some shithead driver watching “Stranger Things” (Great show by the way).

As I was ready to throw in the towel and stop bike commuting, Governor Jerry Brown made some back room deals and the legislature passed a 52 Billion dollar plan to “fix the roads”. The bill will increase gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, even electric car drivers got screwed with an annual $100 fee. Guess who did not get screwed: Bike commuters and multi-modal bike commuters! The plan will allocate $7.5 billion for public transportation and $1 billion for walking and biking trails. So yes, if you ride your bike to work in California you will not be paying for the gas tax AND our transportation and bike trails will be also be improved! If you are one of those pissed off about the tax increase, just ride your bike to work and give the middle finger to our legislature!

Welcome back Bike Commuters and Metrolink riders! It finally stopped raining and I am really happy to be back doing the train/bike commute to work. It is interesting that the “comforts” of your car are forgotten once you realize that you are not stuck in traffic and you get to exercise too!

You may remember that I launched Awnry Bikes last December; these singlespeed/fixed gear bikes are meant to be simple, efficient and really affordable. So I built one for myself to ride to work, I figured that if I am peddling (not pedaling or petaling) these bikes, I might as one ride one!

I went ahead and built what I call a “Raw Deal” bike. Why “Raw Deal”? Because the frame is unpainted and untreated so it is basically “raw”. I also chose bullhorns on the front and switched to my Crank Brothers pedals (not peddles nor petals) other than that, the bike is “stock”.

The bike comes with Neco and Lasco parts, I know, they are not name brand but what do you expect for $200? So how does it ride? For being an inexpensive bike, it is surprisingly smooth and comfortable. I thought that the saddle was going to be a pain in my ass (pun intended) but I was really happy with it.

Interestingly, the bike got a lot of looks and positive comments. The person who scans the tickets in the train stopped to take a second look and nodded in approval! If there is one negative thing about this bike is that it lacks bosses for water bottle holders but I ordered this Bell Clinch Universal mount and cage from Amazon for about 9 bucks and problem solved.

I heard it is supposed to rain this week in Southern California, so stay tuned to see how those SealSkinz products held up.

Hello fellow bike commuters, roadies and mountain bikers; I hope y’all had a great Christmas and you got the bikey stuff you wanted. The big dude in the red suit was kind to me and eight Awnry Bike frames and parts are now in the works of being assembled. I am really excited to offer these simple but fun commuter bikes.

So now that I am done with my bikes plug, let us get into what happened at BikeCommuters.com on 2016. 2016 is the year that “The Bike Geek” returned to BikeCommuters and I am so happy that I did return. Although I never stopped cycling, health reasons really motivated me to keep riding but I never thought about riding my bike to work because of the “logistics”. Excuses, excuses…

Well, if I was going to be writing for a bicycle commuting blog, it would have been a little hypocritical that I would not be riding my bike to work right? So I did my research and came out with a solution: Bike-Train commute.

I went ahead and purchased a used Devinci Caribou cyclocross/touring bike for my cycling needs and by pure coincidence, the fine folks from 2wheel gear asked us to review their new backpack pannier convertible which is one of the best products I reviewed for 2016.

Being new at riding the train had me a little nervous, I did not know about the train bike etiquette and as you may remember, I was a little over dressed for the occasion.

I had forgotten how much fun commuting on bike is and I was also reminded of how many asshole drivers happen to be on the road. I guess things will never change so riding defensively and predictable is the best advise I can give someone who wants to give bike commuting a try.

2016 was also the year that I got my wife involved in cycling, if you don’t remember, my wife does not know how to ride a bicycle. The solution was to order a Bike Friday Family tandem so her and I can go riding. The Bike Friday Tandem was the best money I’ve ever spent on a bicycle, my wife and I really enjoy riding together.

I also got to add a little more excitement to my commute; I sold the Davinci Caribou and got me a rare Spicer Cycles Cyclocross bike for cheap. I was able to ride offroad for part of my commute on my way back home, that was just plain stupid fun. Oh yes, that was also the first time I tried Facebook’s “live” feature.

Fast forwarding towards the end of 2016, I also stopped making excuses on riding while is dark and got totally lit with the help of NiteRider and BrightLightz. Commuting at night was a different but pleasant experience that I truly enjoyed.

2017 should be an exciting but busy year with the launch of Awnry Bikes, but I do plan to keep doing my weekly post for all of you to enjoy. I do want to take the time to thank the following companies for letting us showcase and review their stuff:

Hello Bike Commuters, I hope you enjoyed my NiteRider Lumina Micro 600 review from last week. This week’s post is sort of a prequel to last week’s post, I want to share my experience of riding my commuter bike to the train station in the dark.

I’ve always been hesitant to ride my bicycle on the streets during darkness and I guess I am not alone because I did not see many bike commuters during my ride. As with most of my bike commutes, I always tend to plan methodically my rides and my equipment. Did I over do it? Maybe a little, but you can’t tell me that I wasn’t visible.

Another question I got was what the hell is that on the downtube? That is the Folding Abus Bordo Folding Lock Granit X 6500 which came in handy because I had to lock up my bike to a post while I retrieved my car from an indoor parking lot (I have a roof rack).

Enough of product placement, how was the ride? My apprehension of riding through the streets turned into excitement; cars actually moved over to their left because they actually saw me coming on their rear view mirrors! The NiteRider Lumina 600 Micro Light was plenty enough to light my way through the streets and never worried about outrunning it.

Riding the San Diego Creek is also part of my commute, fortunately Irvine happens to be a very safe city and the bike trail was fully lit. I still recommend using a decent light while riding on the trail, the rider on the left was barely visible in dark areas.

My last concern was the train station, I’ve seen plenty of movies where shit goes crazy at dark, creepy stations. My concern was unfounded; the Tustin Train station is fully lit and I felt safe.

I truly enjoyed bike commuting while is dark and I plan to continue doing it… until it rains.